Author's Note:

Hello all! It's Sunday! And you know what that means... a new chapter! Yay!

As always, HUGE thanks to all my wonderful reviewers out there. BIG hugs and kisses to: Starstruck-MJ, 52dreamer52, stranger1999, Sele de la Luna, SistershoOk, CathJorda, , Skid, valerioux, Byrd3-13, Lucinda, Bookwork129, Ninja-Turtle Charlie, NarukoSon, Leomae2.0, Cino2K, sakshishetty3003, and FireShifter. You guys are all awesome!

Alrighty! I know you're all dying to know what's in that box right? And see Natsu and Lucy reunite? ;D ~ So, on with the show!

The whole way home, Natsu made up for lost time thinking about Luce… whenever he wasn't on a train.

Of course, he was eager to tell her how the mission had gone and that he'd hopefully taught her dad a lesson. And he couldn't wait to give her the box and see what was in it. But there was a lot more stuff that he started thinking about on the way back too.

He wondered what she'd been up to while he was gone and if she'd missed him. It wasn't like he wanted her to be unhappy or anything, but it'd be pretty cool if she had spent a lot of time thinking about him. Maybe then, she would be really excited and happy when he came back early… and give him a hug… or maybe even a kiss. Even though he knew it was too soon for most physical stuff, he hoped that she'd be okay with hugs at least and a little bit of light kissing.

Obviously, the space and time away had really helped him clear his head from the whole Lisanna thing a lot faster than he would've been able to otherwise. He still felt terrible about what'd happened, of course, but that wasn't gonna change for a looong time. Probably never. It'd always make him feel like crap to remember how he'd ended up hurting her…. but at least getting away for a while had taken the edge off and helped him get over the hump.

Which was enough for him to start thinking about getting together with Luce.

There wasn't anything he could do about feeling bad, so it'd be dumb to hold off. He'd never get to date Luce at that rate. And the only other reason he'd been waiting wasn't a problem anymore, 'cause he didn't feel like he was just jumping from one girl to another now. It'd already been a couple weeks, and that was long enough in his book.

Heck, after all the stewing he did on the way back, he didn't have the patience to wait any longer anyways. By the time he got home, he was so fired up about seeing Lucy that he almost busted down Fairy Tail's front door – and got a beer thrown at him for it.

"Oi! Watch it, jackass!" Cana yelled at him – after throwing the beer.

"Hi Cana! I'm back!"

"Yeah, I can see that! Good to see you too, but don't go breaking stuff…. Hey! Are you listening to me?! Watch it!"

She probably got even more pissy 'cause he'd jumped over the bar and was a little too rough with the door behind it.

"See ya later!" he called back to her as he barreled down the stairs. Then, when he skidded out into the main hall, he shouted, "I'm back!" … just in case Lucy was close by.

She wasn't, but Happy was, and he yelled, "Natsu!" as he ran over and hugged him. Happy was the only guy Natsu knew that went around hugging people like this, but everyone was used to it.

"I'm so glad you're back! I was really disappointed when Lucy told me that I'd missed you."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I was in a real rush to finish up my mission and couldn't wait for you to get back."

"You big jerk," his friend scolded and puffed up his cheeks, but Natsu knew he wasn't really mad.

Happy acted like a kid almost all the time, even though he was only a couple years younger than Natsu… but that was part of what made him so likeable.

"So, you've met Luce?"

"Yeah! She's awesome, I like her a lot…" he said with a big grin. Then he paused, and his grin turned a little evil. "I can see why you loooove her."

Natsu had known he was gonna say that, so he didn't even blink.

"Yep, she's great isn't she?"

Happy pouted when Natsu didn't get all embarrassed and stuff like he'd wanted, and Natsu had to keep himself from laughing at his friend looking so cranky. But talking about her had switched a lot of his attention back onto Lucy, and he started looking around for her.

"Where is she anyways?"

"Over there, hanging out with Levy and Juvia," Happy pointed out.

He looked where his buddy pointed, and there she was, laughing and smiling and having a blast. That put a big grin on his face, 'cause seeing her happy and getting along with his family was insanely cool. It just looked so right – in a way he kinda hadn't expected – and that made his heart squeeze up in all sorts of weird ways.

He didn't stand there staring for long though. After a couple seconds, he bounded over and threw an arm around her shoulders.

"Hey Luce! I'm back!"

.

…

.

Lucy jumped when a sudden force hit her from behind and made her dip nose-first towards the table. It only took her a second to realize that someone had wrapped an arm around her shoulders – landing a lot of their weight on her – and a second after that, she realized it was Natsu, thanks to him yelling in her ear.

The surprise made her yelp, and she started to say, "What in the world…?!" but as soon as she figured out what was going on, she stopped protesting immediately.

"Natsu!"

She was overwhelmed with a wave of excitement to see him, probably made stronger because he was back so much sooner than expected.

"I didn't think you'd get home for another week or two!"

"Home, huh? I like the sound'a that," he said with a wide grin, and she flushed.

Somehow, she had actually started to think of the Fairy Tail guildhall as 'home' already, even though she'd only been there for a couple of weeks…. But she suddenly realized that saying it to Natsu in this context also seemed very domestic. It was like a wife welcoming her husband home, and that thought was a little flustering.

It made her both giddy and a tad self-conscious, because she was abruptly reminded that they technically were a couple now – even if they were taking things slowly and hadn't actually started dating yet.

Naturally, Happy picked that precise moment to make an appearance. He popped up on her other side without any warning whatsoever, and teasingly crooned, "He loooves you," right into her ear.

She sputtered and blushed even more, which made everyone at the table laugh – though Levy tried to hide hers, and Juvia just smiled.

"Shut it, Cat!" she fussed at the Exceed.

He wasn't actually in his cute blue cat-form right now, but she had taken to calling him that whenever he took his teasing too far – which she'd quickly discovered he had a bad habit of doing.

Natsu chuckled, "There ya go, buddy. You got someone."… suggesting that Happy had already tried to tease him and apparently failed.

That didn't surprise her at all; the pink-haired idiot was incredibly hard to fluster. Honestly, it was a trait that Lucy was more than a little jealous of, and she was extremely thankful when Levy interrupted and distracted them from the embarrassing topic before they could make her flush any hotter.

"Well, it's good to see you back, Natsu!"

"Yeah! It's good to be back!" he replied and plopped down next to Lucy on the bench, his arm still around her shoulders. It was so casual that she might not have noticed if she hadn't been so aware of the contact – and of him in general right now.

Happy plunked himself down on her other side, and she had the strange feeling that this might turn out to be a common location for her from now on.

However, her warm, fuzzy train of thought was derailed and rerouted to something more serious when Juvia asked, "So, how did your mission go?"

"It went great!" he boasted and puffed up. Then he turned to Lucy with happy glittering eyes and told her, "I paid that jerk back for all the shit he put ya through."

She gave him a wobbly smile back, still feeling somewhat conflicted about the situation. On the one hand, she experienced a surge of fierce satisfaction… but on the other, she couldn't help but feel somewhat guilty. Knowing that her father had been beaten to a bloody pulp shouldn't make her happy.

Of course, whether she was happy about it or not, the bottom line was that her father had definitely needed a dose of reality to make him a better king…. She could only hope that Natsu had been able to provide it for him and that he would change his ways.

Still, it was a relief when Natsu suddenly changed the subject and burst out with, "Oh yeah! And I ran into Brady! She told me to give ya this!"

Before Lucy could ask whether 'Brady' was actually 'Brandy,' Natsu swung up the large bag he still had slung over his shoulder and thunked it onto the table. Levi quickly snatched up the huge book she'd been reading before he crushed it, and Juvia sputtered when her water glass was knocked over.

"Please be more careful!" Juvia protested as she used water magic to draw the liquid from her clothes. It formed an orb and poured back into her cup.

The other bluenette made a frustrated-sounding huff and snapped her book closed, but both leaned forwards curiously when Lucy opened the bag. All of them gasped and stared in shock at the ornate golden box that she pulled out.

"What is this?! You said Brandy gave it to you?" Lucy asked Natsu, her eyes glued to the box.

"Nah, she didn't give it to me; she told me that it was in the treasury and you'd probably want it. Apparently it's some of your mom's stuff."

"My mom's?"

A memory flickered through her mind and made her grow quiet.

Back when Lucy had been a little girl, her mother had spent a significant amount of time studying maps, charts, and calendars in order to chart the stars and find more celestial key locations. It was a vivid memory because Lucy had always enjoyed watching her work. She would spend hours sitting beside her mother, watching raptly as Layla Heartfilia used complicated looking instruments to study her maps and charts, delicately marking on them with bright red ink… and sometimes she even drew her own from scratch.

Naturally, when her mother noticed how interested Lucy was, she had started to teach her the art of astrological charting as well. The process had turned out to be extremely difficult – particularly when drawing her own charts – but it had also been incredibly fascinating and rewarding, and to her delight, she'd turned out to have a surprising knack for it.

It was a shame that her father had found out what they were doing. The tyrant had never approved of his wife using magic, and he obviously didn't appreciate her teaching Lucy how to use it either. Though star charting wasn't technically using magic, it could be categorized as magical studies in their case – especially since the aim was to find more celestial keys. So, of course, he'd immediately put a stop to it when he discovered their secret, and unsurprisingly, all of their hard work had disappeared.

At the time, Lucy hadn't fully understood what happened… she only knew that her father had stopped them from star-charting. When all of her mother's charts and research vanished, she'd assumed that he had destroyed them – which, she found out later on, he had tried to do. However, her mother had actually been able to outsmart him.

Years later, when she was on her deathbed, her mother had told Lucy that she'd been able to save the star charts. She'd stowed them in a box sealed shut with celestial magic, and to prevent Jude from simply getting rid of the box, she had chosen a solid gold chest set with precious stones. Knowing her husband's greed, she had hoped that using a valuable vessel would make it difficult for him to part with it, and the tactic apparently worked like a charm. Instead of selling or destroying it, he'd locked the chest away in the treasury where she couldn't get to it.

For a long time, it had been Lucy's dream to recover her mother's research and continue it, but she'd thought that was impossible. So, to see it suddenly sitting in front of her was more than a little shocking, and she had to spend a few minutes unscrambling her mind from the trip down memory lane.

As soon as she started to recover though, her excitement quickly began to build, and it wasn't long before she was practically bouncing out of her seat.

"It's the box!"

"The box? It sounds like you already knew about this," Juvia commented calmly, in contrast to Levy, who was obviously enthusiastic.

"What's in it, Lu?"

"If it's the box I'm thinking of… there should be a lot of maps, charts, papers… that sort of thing…." she answered distractedly as she started turning it around and examining it more closely.

"Papers?! Awww, that's kinda disappointing," Natsu grunted next to her, and she lightly swatted at him without looking. A soft wisp of hair across her hand told her she'd missed – or else he had dodged.

"No, it's not!" she replied emphatically at the same time that Levy eagerly asked, "What kind of papers and charts?"

"Um… research… and… star charts… and other things. Hold on, I need to focus on this for a moment…. How in the world do I open it?!"

"Dunno. I sure as heck couldn't figure it out."

"You tried to open my mother's box?!" Lucy yelped, mildly annoyed but not particularly surprised by the information.

"Well yeah, I was curious about what was in it. But it doesn't have any kinda locks or keyholes or anything."

"Hmph. You know it's rude to go through other people's things…" she muttered under her breath absentmindedly as she kept inspecting the puzzling box.

The answer came to her after a few more minutes of flipping the container this way and that… and it was so obvious that she felt a little silly for taking so long to figure it out.

She needed celestial magic to open it, since her mother had sealed the box. 'Of course,' she thought to herself, face-palming with a sigh. 'Why didn't I think of it sooner?'

The only problem, unfortunately, was that Lucy still wasn't very good at summoning her own magic yet – though she planned to change that as soon as possible – and it would take a lot of time and concentration for her to tap into it. And, considering her surroundings, that wasn't exactly ideal. Not only would it be difficult to focus with so many people around her, but struggling to summon her magic in front of so many accomplished mages would be a little bit embarrassing.

Luckily, she quickly thought of another, easier option that also had a chance of working.

Reaching for the necklace at her throat, she hooked a finger under the invisible chain and pulled it out from under her shirt. She could see her keys dangling from the fine golden strand, but she knew that nobody else could…. They were all staring at her somewhat strangely.

However, when she grabbed one of the keys, it started shining, and suddenly everyone blinked and gasped in surprise.

"Where did that key come from?" Wendy squeaked – having joined in with Carla a few moments ago.

Thankfully, they'd been told what was going on when they arrived, so Lucy only had to answer the one question.

"I have an invisible chain around my neck with several of them on it."

"And what exactly are they?" Carla asked, hopping up onto the table in her cat form to take a closer look.

"They're celestial keys – artifacts loaded with celestial magic. If this is the box I'm thinking of, my mom sealed it with celestial magic as well… so hopefully these will be enough to open it. Otherwise, I'll need to try and summon my own magic, and I haven't really mastered that yet."

It seemed that was Natsu's cue to chime in with, "Well come on, what're you waiting for? Open it already!" – though he sounded significantly less enthusiastic than before. Apparently finding out that the box was just full of papers and documents had disappointed him.

"Alright, alright… I am. Don't rush me."

Biting her lip, she sent up a quick prayer to her mom that this would work.

With a deep breath, she reached out with the key and tapped it on the lid of the box. For a long moment nothing happened, and she winced, worried that her idea had failed. However, before she could give up, a faint glow started to emanate from the container… quickly growing brighter and brighter by the second. A wave of relief had her breathlessly chuckling several times, and she happily watched until the light became too painfully bright to look at.

There was a final flash of brilliance, and then the light died out – leaving everyone quiet for a minute as they all squinted and blinked away the mirror images.

As soon as she could see again, Lucy rushed to put away her keys and reached for the lid of the box. It opened easily this time, exposing the papers packed tightly inside, and for a while she just gawked at them, in disbelief that she was finally in possession of her mother's research….

Levy snapped her out of the daze by exclaiming, "Take them out so we can get a look, Lu!"

Everyone hurried to clear the table, and Lucy spread out the papers across the top – being careful to keep them in the same order they were arranged in.

As expected, the contents turned out to be a mixture of scrolls, star charts, calendars, and maps, along with a few books and one letter addressed to her.

Wendy was the one who found the note as she helped Lucy unpack everything, and everyone quieted down when she said, "Oh look! A letter!"

Though Lucy hadn't ever specifically said that her mother was dead, it seemed like most of the people here had been able to guess it – based on the slightly solemn atmosphere that took over the table.

Lucy swallowed thickly and stared at the envelope that Wendy held out to her. A mixture of dread and anticipation filled her as she braced herself for the brick of sadness that would undoubtedly drop into her stomach as she read her mother's letter.

"Oh… thanks…" she mumbled as she hesitantly took it.

Very slowly, she opened up the envelope and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Then, after several deep breaths, she also unfolded the note and finally let her eyes focus on the words.

In delicate handwriting that she hadn't seen in so long, it said:

'My dearest Lucy,

I am unsure whether I will ever be able to recover this chest myself, but my greatest hope is that someday you will come into possession of it.

As I'm sure you're aware, your father disapproved of my research, and he would have destroyed these documents had I not safeguarded them in a container of such value. I am optimistic that he will place it in the treasury, where perhaps one of us might acquire it at a later date.

If you are reading this letter, then you have indeed managed to successfully obtain it, and to have opened the chest, you must have also inherited the family gift of celestial magic. For both of these reasons – and many more – I am so proud of you, and I hope that these documents are able to aid you in whatever magical endeavors you decide to embark upon.

Unfortunately, if you are reading this letter, there is also a strong likelihood that I am not there to assist you personally. With this thought in mind, I packed a few books on charting the stars and celestial magic within this chest. As it may have been a long time since our lessons, these will help remind you of anything you might have forgotten, as well as fill in any blanks that I neglected to teach you.

I also included my own personal notebook, within which I recorded all the details of my research. Naturally, if you do not wish to complete my star charts, I will not be unhappy in the least. However, if that IS something you desire, my notes should greatly assist you, and I have full faith in your ability to do so. You were always exceptionally talented and clever.

Know that whatever path you choose, and whatever you decide to do or not do with the contents of this chest, I will be perfectly happy. I would never wish for you to feel pressure from any of these things… all that I want is to provide you with tools and resources which might help you along whatever road you choose to follow.

Please remember this: I love you more than life itself, and the most important thing in the world to me is simply your happiness.

Love,

Forever and Ever,

Mom.'

Once she'd finished, Lucy quickly sniffed and wiped her watering eyes. It'd been a struggle to keep from outright bawling, and a few tears had still slipped out while she read.

"You okay there, Lu?" Levy asked quietly, and when she glanced up, she saw that all her friends' faces had similar expressions of concern and worry.

"Yeah… I'll be okay. Uh… my mom passed away about a year and a half ago, so reading this was just… emotional. But, um…" She paused to sniffle and swab her eyes again, then pressed on with what she was saying. "Anyways, at least I know for sure now that this is the box I was hoping for."

Luckily, nobody said anything about her mother's death, aside from a few brief responses along the lines of, 'I'm so sorry for your loss.' They all sensed that she would rather talk about the box than her sadness, and Levy quickly stepped in to continue the conversation.

She had been examining the papers on the table while Lucy was busy with her mother's letter, and she gestured at them and asked, "So what sort of research is this? I see astrological maps, world maps, star charts, calendars…. Was your mother an astronomer?"

"Not exactly. She was a celestial mage, and she was trying to find more celestial keys. Incidentally, I'm also a celestial mage…."

"You mentioned celestial magic before… what exactly is that? I've never heard of that kind of magic," Juvia asked, looking curious and confused.

The question made Lucy realize that none of her friends actually knew she was a celestial wizard, and even Natsu didn't really know much about her magic. She'd told him a little bit about it on the way here, but she hadn't ever fully explained it to him.

"I'm not surprised you haven't heard of it; it's pretty rare from what I understand. Let's see… how should I explain? Um, well… it's a little complicated, but I guess the main thing is that celestial mages can make contracts with celestial spirits to use their power."

Carla was the next person to make an inquiry, which she did in her normal prissy way. "And what exactly are celestial spirits?"

"Oh, I think I've read about them before!" Levy interjected excitedly before Lucy could answer. "They're super powerful, immortal beings from another world. Sort of like gods, angels, demons, genies, giants, fairies, and dragons… though, I've read those last three can show up in our world too."

"Uh… aren't those species usually involved with forbidden or dark magic? Is celestial magic like that?" Wendy asked, sounding alarmed.

"Not really, or at least I don't think so…. I don't actually know anything about summoning gods and fairies and whatnot. I didn't even know you could. But I think celestial magic is considered a lost magic because it's only found in certain bloodlines, and a lot of those families have died out."

"But… if the celestial spirits are in another world, how do you make a contract with them?" Happy questioned, his eyes bright but thoroughly baffled.

"That's where the keys come in. Each one is connected to a different spirit's 'home' – for lack of a better word – and can open a portal there."

"And how do you make a contract with them? You don't have to sacrifice years off of your life or something do you?" Juvia asked dryly, obviously joking.

Natsu apparently didn't pick up on the joke though, or else just decided to ignore it, because he scowled at her and burst out with, "What're you talking about?! Luce wouldn't do something stupid like that!"

"I know… I was just using that as an example."

Before they could get into an argument, Lucy interrupted with the answer to Juvia's question. "Right, um, no. From what my mom told me, usually you have to pass some sort of test before they'll sign a contract with you. I'm not entirely sure what kind of tests, other than they're very difficult."

Luckily, that seemed to distract Natsu, and he didn't try to pick a fight with Juvia. Instead he eagerly asked, "So, what kinda powers will you get from them when ya pass the test?"

"I'll be able to summon their 'vessel' – some sort of object that will contain their magic."

"Wow, that kind of sounds like Erza's magic," Happy pointed out, making her blink as she remembered some of the conversations between her and Erza.

"Oh, that's right… she mentioned that she could summon weapons and armor. I guess it is a little similar; though I don't know if any of my celestial vessels will be weapons or anything like that. The only one my mom ever showed me was her celestial harp, and I don't think it did anything other than play beautiful music."

"That's it? Doesn't seem like a super cool power…" Natsu grunted, and she whacked at him again.

"Just because she couldn't blow things up with her harp doesn't mean that it wasn't 'cool!' The music she could create with that harp was more beautiful than anything you've ever heard. It was unearthly."

"Well, I think it sounds amazing!" Wendy commented, soothing Lucy's ruffled feathers a little.

"It was," she huffed, settling back down.

A few slightly tense seconds later, Levy helped her completely refocus on the topic at hand by chiming in with, "So then, these maps and charts will lead you to new keys?"

"Eventually, yes. But I'll need to study them for a while first and polish up my star charting skills. Mom taught me how to do it, but it's been so long since I touched one that I'm a little rusty. Besides… I'm not even sure whether any of these are actually complete…" Lucy hummed as she started looking over the papers laid out on the table.

"Well, I'm curious to know how a star chart or a map could lead you to one of these keys… unless it was a treasure map," Carla inquired, frowning a little.

"Oh, that's because each key has its own celestial temple, and celestial temples can be extremely hard to track down. They aren't permanent physical locations in our world… they're more like magical pockets of space that show up in a certain time and place based on how the stars are aligned. And of course each temple is different, so you have to do a different chart for each one."

"But what if you do all that work, and the key has already been taken when you get there?" Levy asked.

"That could happen, but unless a key is in the possession of a celestial mage, it vanishes and returns to its temple. That's why the keys are passed down from generation to generation in families who have celestial magic… and since there aren't very many of us left, there's a good chance that any temple we find will still have its key," Lucy hummed, most of her attention focused on the documents and diagrams in front of her.

The next few minutes were silent as she worked to figure out what was what within the mess of papers.

"This looks so interesting!" Levy said after a bit of that, sounding jealous. "If you ever need any help with it, I'd love to join in! I'm not familiar with star charting, but if you don't mind showing me the basics…"

If anyone else had asked, Lucy would have been reluctant about accepting. Teaching someone how to star chart wasn't something she felt extremely excited about right now, since it was such a complicated thing to learn and had the potential to eat up time that she would rather spend working on her own charts.

However, she knew that Levy would pick up on it very quickly – and would probably be a huge asset in the long run – so she didn't hesitate to answer with, "Sure! I could really use the help!"

…

Several hours later, they had relocated to Lucy's room so they could really spread out and work without being in anyone's way. Everyone else at their table had lost interest much faster than them, and it didn't feel right to be taking up the entire space like that. Besides, Lucy had wanted to find a more permanent method of organizing her papers…. Having to take everything out of the box and put it all back every single time she wanted to work on her star charts would be an enormous hassle.

The best idea she could come up with for that was to tack them onto her wall, since it was the largest flat space she had available other than the floor.

What turned out to be the trickiest part though, was actually figuring out which papers to put up and how to arrange them…. So, it was an incredibly good thing that they had her mom's notebook to help them with that. Layla Heartfilia had always been a meticulously organized person, and it really turned out to be a blessing when it came to such complicated paperwork.

In the end, Lucy decided to go with a layout similar to a bubble chart – with one large chart of the entire sky at the center, and all of the individual star charts for the temples arranged around it in their own little pockets of space. Then, she surrounded each of the smaller charts with all the most important notes, calendars, and maps pertaining to them.

Considering the sheer amount of paperwork they had to go through, it wasn't surprising at all that the entire operation took the rest of the evening.

Thankfully, Natsu and Happy had tagged along with them and parked themselves on Lucy's bed while she and Levy worked. Otherwise, she would've felt torn between spending time with her boyfriend – who had just gotten home from a long trip – and her new incredible project.

…

.

…

As for Natsu… he had a great time hanging out with his best bud and catching up. He hadn't seen the guy in a couple months, so they had a ton to talk about.

Happy told him all about what'd been going on at the guild and what Natsu had missed while he was gone. For a guy, the cat-man liked to gossip, and he had lots of scoops to share. Like: somebody had seen Elfman sneak outta Evergreen's room in the middle of the night; so rumors had started up about the two of them getting it on. Natsu had to laugh when he imagined how freaked out they'd probably gotten… especially Evergreen, 'cause she could be really stuck up and fussy about that kinda thing.

They also chatted a lot about the missions they'd gone on separately. And – just like Natsu had figured – his buddy was extra fired up about the one he'd taken with Carla and Wendy, and he went on and on and on about it. For a couple of minutes, it was pretty funny to watch Happy get all silly and squirmy and red, but after a while, Natsu got kinda bored.

When he was totally sick and tired of it, he interrupted with, "Okay, okay, I get it… Carla's amazing. What else happened?"

Maybe he shouldn't have done that though, 'cause Happy seemed to take it sorta personally. The little jerk probably tried to get back at him later by asking a shit-ton of questions about how he and Luce ended up getting together (or else that was just Happy's normal gossip-gathering.) But either way, being grilled for info was kinda tedious… though the actual questions didn't really bug Natsu too much.

He didn't even mind answering the ones like, "So… have you guys kissed yet?"

'Course, a simple, "No," got the job done there. But Lucy got super flustered and embarrassed whenever Happy asked stuff like that – which was pretty funny.

She was obviously listening in on them, and sometimes she busted into their chat with something like, "I already told you what happened, Cat! Why are you asking him?!"

Usually, Happy argued back with, "Yeah, but I wanna hear his point of view too!" But Natsu was pretty sure his buddy was just doing it to get her all red and freaked out.

And he played along, 'cause it was hilarious. He always got a kick outta teasing her… especially when she was ignoring him.

It was kinda annoying that she'd gotten busy right away with all those papers, but he understood why she was so into it. That was her mom's stuff, so of course she'd get all absorbed and whatever. If somebody gave him some things his parents had left behind for him, he'd wanna go through them right away too.

But even though he was happy that she was happy, he still wanted her to pay more attention to him.

He must've missed her a lot more than he'd thought; it was kinda crazy how much he wanted to spend time with her. Of course, that probably wasn't just from being away…. He figured it was pretty normal to wanna hang out with his brand-new girlfriend.

Though, as usual, it wasn't like he bothered to think too hard about the whys and stuff. Wanting to be with her didn't bug him, so he didn't really care why he felt like that – he just knew that he did.

And he was really happy when she finally finished putting stuff up on her wall.

As soon as she stood back and said, "There… I think we're finally done," he jumped off the bed and shouted, "Alright! It's about time; that took forever!"

She shot him a cranky look and fussed, "Of course it took a while! Didn't you see how many charts and papers we had to go through?"

Even Levy got kinda pissy, and she threw in, "You should congratulate her! She's worked really hard!"

"Well yeah, good job, Luce! I'm glad ya got it done!"

That seemed to do the trick, and both girls put away their bristles.

With a super tired smile, Luce sighed, "Thanks… but it isn't really finished. All I've done is organize everything…. Next, I have to actually finish the star charts, and that'll be much harder. It's going to be a while before I can actually use any of them."

"Uh-huh, sure. But don't spend all your time on it, 'cause there's other stuff to do."

For a second she looked like she was gonna get cranky again, but then she winced and kinda deflated. "You're right… I need to make sure not to get too obsessed with this. I'll try to limit myself to a couple of hours every day."

That made Natsu feel a whole lot better, and he gave her a big cheesy grin.

"Great!"

Sneak Peek:

While she was gone, Cana leaned around Lucy and shot him a smirk. "You sure came in early today, Natsu. Did you miss Lucy that much?"

"Yep!"

He didn't care if he sounded like a sap or whatever, so it was easy to just own up to the truth.

Lucy flushed, which was cute, and Cana rolled her eyes. "Of course you'd say that. You're no fun…"

She obviously lost interest in him and turned back to Luce. "So, how about it?"

"Huh?"

"Come on, remember? What were we talking about before your boyfriend showed up and distracted everyone? Have you thought about joining Fairy Tail for real yet?"

Post Note:

Alright, alright! It looks like next chapter, some important things might be transpiring. ;D

And of course, as always, feel free to hit me up in the reviews if you have any questions or concerns. :D